bizarre new anxiety

[ursasmaller]

I have a three year old female border collie/flatcoat retriever who has in the last three days developed some very very frustrating behavior. She'll be fine all evening, until it comes to bedtime. She will very suddenly begin panting very heavily. She jumps into the tub and whines. When I ignore her, she whines by my bed. I get up to let her out, and she enthusiastically runs to the door. When I open the door, she tries to run away.... doesn't wanna go out anymore. Finally I usually end up locking her out of my room, and she continues her heavy panting and occasional whining just outside the door until I finally fall asleep hours later. Needless to say, I am losing my patience.

Bedtime has never been a problem with her, with the exception of one week while she was a puppy. As a pup I kenneled her for bedtime, when she was older she had free reign in my bedroom, and more recently I leave the bedroom door open because she likes the cool floor in the bathroom. I have no idea why this behavior has started so suddenly. I can tell that she's anxious or distressed, but I know she's not sick. When I touch her, she's kind of trembly. There's no noise or anything going on in the neighborhood to bother us.

Have you seen this behavior in other dogs? Do you have any idea what might be causing it?

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Tango does this too. Her problem is the fact that she's a very anxious dog as it is, and at night she listens to different noises very intently to the point that she gets scared/worried (wind, creaks in the house, etc.). She shakes, pants, whines, etc. I just put her in her crate with a couple stuffed toys and a few blankets. It calms her down pretty quickly. She feels safe in there and sleeps through the night without problems. I don't lock the crate door. I close it so that it appears closed, but if she wants to come out later on after she's calmed down, she can.

I also give her Rescue Remedy daily. It helps a bit, but not a whole lot. I totally understand what you're going through. Tango wasn't always this way either, but it's something that you eventually just grow accustom to. Also try not to praise her with "good girl", "it's ok", etc. Good luck with yours! I wish I had some better advice.

[Canis-Lupess]

Be very careful about going to let her out and trying to calm her down and doing all these different things because the behaviour will become learned just to get attention. Yes, dogs will even make out they are nervous if it works and will whine, tremble and act in the same way they did when they were genuinely nervous because it gets you fussing round them. Dogs will even pretend they are ill after they have actually been ill to get the extra attention and will refuse food and even throw up even when there is nothing wrong with them. It's surprising what they'll do to have you smother them with attention.

It is common also for dogs to pretend they need the loo just to make their owners get up to let them out of the door and then they'll bark and scratch to come back in again...lol. :D

Your dog might already be having you on and just felt anxious one evening because of something she heard that you didn't or whatever and when you fussed around her, she realised that this behaviour was rewarding and so has repeated it on purpose.
As was said above, just provide a safe haven for her to retire to if she feels like this for a genuine reason but never reward the behaviour by giving her more attention than usual.

[Hellow]

She might want a bath.LOL :)

[ursasmaller]

thanks for the advice, guys. I only have one kennel and it's usually reserved for the puppy in the daytime, so she gave me "the look" when I told her to get in at bedtime, but I gave her a special toy, closed the door, and went to sleep to the sound of silence. In the morning I found her sacked out on the couch, as I hadn't locked the kennel. Hopefully this continues to work and eventually she can graduate back to free range.